


Unease

by Dain



Series: AroWriMo 2020 [2]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: (w/ the OC not Han), Aromantic Character, Aromantic Luke Skywalker, Awkward Conversations, Gen, One-Sided Attraction, nebulously set between ANH and ESB
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22825450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dain/pseuds/Dain
Summary: Beritt was new, and not in Luke’s squadron, but you got to know people. There’d been barely anything to do for the last week but mingle.Which would have been enjoyable, if not for the fact that Beritt was…interested in Luke.
Series: AroWriMo 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630078
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: AroWriMo 2020





	Unease

Luke had spent a lot of time dreaming back on Tatooine. Dreaming about what it would be like once he finally left: places he might see, people he might meet, lives he might live. His time with the Rebellion had fulfilled those dreams almost to excess. The galaxy, as it turned out, was more strange and more wonderful than anything he could have imagined.

And yet, somehow, it still held places like this.

A few squadrons of fighter pilots and a handful of other personnel were currently stationed in an underground bunker, something that had been built and then abandoned before Luke had even been born. He’d sat through the briefings about how it was dangerously close to a handful of Imperial strongholds, how it was invisible from modern scanning technology, how all of that meant that time spent aboveground was to be severely limited, but in the end none of that really mattered. All that mattered was that he was stuck there and he hated every minute of it.

After a week of narrow, echoing corridors, low ceilings, and sickly yellow artificial lighting, Luke almost felt homesick. At least the desert had been open. At least there he could see the sky, and stretch his arms without bumping into a wall. No wonder he’d never imagined a place like this: if anywhere was worse than Tatooine, this was it.

But there was no use in keeping them all cooped up forever, and finally High Command had approved the idea of small patrols on the planet’s surface. Luke had jumped at the opportunity and now found himself trying to remember the path through identical gray hallways that would take him to the surface, fresh air and freedom so close he could practically taste it…

“Commander Skywalker!”

Luke let his eyes flutter shut for a moment. He wanted so badly to pretend he hadn’t heard, to keep moving until he made it out of the bunker, but he knew that wouldn’t be _appropriate_. Steeling himself to spend another few minutes underground, he stopped and let the man jogging up the hall catch up to him.

“Beritt,” he said in greeting. “Something going on?”

Beritt was new, and not in Luke’s squadron, but you got to know people. There’d been barely anything to do for the last week but mingle.

Which would have been enjoyable, if not for the setting and the fact that Beritt was…interested in Luke.

“No, not - nothing urgent,” Beritt said. His face was flushed - from jogging? “I saw you passing by…”

Luke glanced away, down the hallway he’d been trying to escape into, dearly hoping that Beritt wasn’t going to try to have this conversation now. Usually Luke would already have made his own feelings (or, rather, lack thereof) clear, but Beritt was unfortunately both shy and genuinely likable - he hadn’t said anything outright, and Luke hated the thought of hurting him. Most people were more interested in the pilot who’d destroyed the Death Star than they were in Luke Skywalker, and so it was easy to tell them no: they might be disappointed, but they didn’t really know him, and it didn’t matter much to them in the long run. But Luke knew Beritt, and liked him, and was pretty sure his feelings ran deeper than that.

Eventually, Luke hoped, someone else would take pity on Beritt and let him know he was barking up the wrong tree. Maybe that would be better than Luke telling him so himself. In the meantime, every interaction with him was intensely uncomfortable, Luke waiting with bated breath for something unfortunate to happen.

Luke already felt like he had kreetles crawling all over him just from being cooped up in the bunker. He had neither the time nor the desire to deal with this right now.

Beritt pulled himself together and said, “Um, Commander Iasvek wanted me to tell you…High Command wants the proposed flight paths finalized soon. She, uh, Commander Iasvek, that is, thought it would be a good idea for the squadron leaders to meet up. For that.”

“Oh, good,” Luke said, relieved. The thought of getting back in the air was a welcome one. “I can’t do that right now, I have something else to take care of, but-”

“Of course, I didn’t - tomorrow morning, that’s what Commander Iasvek said. If that works.”

“That’ll be great,” Luke said. “I-” But before he was able to excuse himself and escape from the conversation, the two of them had to flatten themselves against the wall to let a harried-looking woman pass by, muttering something under her breath about windows. Luke glanced over at Beritt as she passed and found his face just inches from his own; startled, Luke practically jumped back a step in order to put some space between them, nearly bumping into the opposite wall as he did so.

He really hated this place.

Beritt’s face had fallen, and he was looking anywhere but at Luke as he slowly detached himself from the wall and turned to leave. “I need to…”

“Beritt,” Luke said. Beritt stopped and half-turned back, his eyes darting to Luke’s face and then away again, and Luke realized with a sinking heart that he couldn’t let this go on the way it was. It wasn’t fair to either of them. Luke wanted to be friends with Beritt, but he couldn’t be if every encounter with him was so viscerally uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to react so…violently, I…” Luke sighed, and briefly pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have time to be gentle, but he didn’t want to be harsh. “I really do need to be somewhere right now, but if you’re not busy when I get back…we should talk. Okay?”

Beritt nodded hesitantly; he still didn’t look happy, but Luke supposed that was better than false hope.

“Great,” Luke said, and he knew his smile probably looked as uneasy as he felt. “I’ll see you around.” He hated to leave Beritt hanging like that, but Han was going to leave without him if he didn’t hurry, and Luke wanted _out_.

Stepping out of the bunker was a breath of fresh air in more ways than one. They’d ended up in a temperate spring, and the sunken entrance to the bunker was nestled among blue-green foliage that rustled gently in an honest-to-goodness breeze. Luke closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, letting his lungs fill with fresh, cool air.

“Took you long enough,” Han said, and Luke caught the helmet that was tossed his way without looking. He opened his eyes in time to see Han’s eyeroll and dismissive wave of his hand, and grinned. A breath of fresh air, indeed.

“Got caught up with someone,” Luke said as he clambered up the slope from the entrance to ground level. “Beritt.”

“Ah,” Han said. “Break his heart yet?”

“I think I’m about to.”

Han shook his head. “You know, I told you to get this over with weeks ago. I did say that.”

“I know, I know,” Luke said. He strapped the helmet on and swung one leg over the speeder waiting for him. “Let’s get out of here. Right now all I want to do is see what this planet really has to offer.”

There would be plenty of time for difficult conversations later.


End file.
